First Four!! Play in…I mean…Opening Round Games

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FIRST FOUR!!! 

-Okay, let me get this out of the way.  I’m not a huge fan of the First Four.  I look at the NCAA Tournament as being a championship and not a jamboree.  I think the idea of expanding the field to “give more teams a chance” isn’t really doing that at all.  There is a 30+ game regular season.  All 351 teams have a chance to make their case of belonging in the NCAA Tournament throughout that season.  So, everyone has a chance.  There are also conference tournaments in 31 out of the 32 leagues that award automatic bids to the winners, so that is yet another chance that everyone has.  Expanding the field to give more teams a chance is, in reality, giving teams a third chance after they’ve already had two.  But, it is what it is.  No one asked me.

But, if we must have 68 teams instead of 64, then why do we use this format??  This is not a dig at Dayton.  I think they do an amazing job with this event.  Furthermore, I don’t think anyone else in the country would do a better job with this event.  But, logistically, it is difficult on both the teams and the fans.  You learn you’re in the tournament on Sunday night.  If you’re playing tonight, you have less than 48 hours to get to Dayton, and essentially you need to figure out how you’re going to do that before you go to bed on Sunday night.  The fans of the teams who are in these games cannot make travel plans on Sunday to be in Dayton on Tuesday, and then maybe be in another city entirely on either Thursday or Friday if they win.  On top of that, the local fans in Dayton, as great as they are, usually aren’t all that familiar about any of the teams, (especially in the #16 v #16 games), so we have fans with no emotional interest just sitting there and watching as if they are at a movie.  It isn’t really the NCAA Tournament atmosphere that we have at all the other sites.

So, if we must have 68, I’d like to see it done one of two ways.  First would be to have a #17 line, and just have the #16s play the #17s at the #16s.  I know some of the venues are small, but doing it this way would create a much getter atmosphere and arrange it so at least half the teams didn’t have to travel.

The other way would be to just send them directly to the sites that they’re playing in.  Instead of sending Florida Gulf Coast from Gulf Coast to Dayton and then to Raleigh all in about 72 hours, just send them straight to Raleigh and play the game there.  I’d much rather play two games in two days at one place than two games in three days at two places.

But, we don’t do it that way.  Teams are in Dayton now that didn’t know they were going to be there as recently as Sunday afternoon, and because of the rush it was very difficult to get their own fans there.  But, here we go.  So….

#16 FLORIDA GULF COAST VS #16 FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON.  Both of these teams won their tournaments in exciting fashion, particularly Fairleigh Dickinson.  FGCU wasn’t really expected to be here, but after clobbering top seeded North Florida on the road in the ASun semis and then holding on to beat a Stetson team in the championship that got hot all of a sudden, they made it.  I’m actually really looking forward to this game because both teams have looked good in their recent games, and it should be exciting and well played.  We keep hearing about “Dunk City.”  Well, this FGCU team isn’t exactly “Dunk City” anymore than this year’s Michigan team (who is also in the First Four) is the Fab Five.  It’s a different cast of characters entirely, but it is still fun to watch them play and it should be fun tonight.

#11 VANDERBILT VS #11 WICHITA STATE.  Vandy had high expectations coming into the year, but was somewhat of a surprise selection, especially when compared to teams like Monmouth and Saint Bonaventure who were left out.  They still have a strong front court which could give Wichita problems.  Wichita isn’t as big, but they have a very good backcourt, so the contrast of styles should be exciting.  Wichita hasn’t won a lot of great games, but they’ve won several road games in conference that weren’t easy to win, so they are somewhat battle tested and could do well in this tournament if they get out of the First Four tonight.

#16 HOLY CROSS VS #16 SOUTHERN U.  It’s great to see Southern U back in the tournament after an APR ban that had nothing to do with the current players.  Although they weren’t the first place team in the SWAC, they did appear to be one of the stronger teams, if not the strongest, out of conference so it’s not as if them being here is any sort of a fluke.  Holy Cross, on the other hand….yeah, that could be considered a bit of a fluke.  They finished in 9th place in the Patriot League, which only has ten teams, and didn’t win a single road game during the regular season.  They ended up winning four in the conference tournament to win the automatic bid, and looked inexplicably good in all four of them.  Like the other game, this one should be exciting.

#11 MICHIGAN VS #11 TULSA.  It has been discussed, at length, how no one feels Tulsa should be in this field.  I agree with that.  They do have a win at SMU, though, so just because they rarely played up to their ceiling does not mean their ceiling isn’t higher than their paper indicates.  In their last game they were crushed by Memphis, but sometimes when a team is given a second chance that they weren’t expecting to get, they really cash it in.  Michigan had a lot of peaks and valleys this season as well, but they beat a very good Indiana team in the Big Ten Tournament, and had they not done so they may not be in this field.  Their good has certainly looked better than Tulsa’s good, but their bad has shown that they can also be beaten by a team like Tulsa.  Lastly, both these teams should thank Louisville and SMU.  Without their ineligibility, neither of these teams would be here.